Fighters are the finest athletes on the planet

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LOL. Yeah. I'm sure Ronaldo is regretting being the highest paid athlete on the planet in a sport that won't ruin his life after 50 and with a net worth 20 times more than any MMA fighter ever. I'm sure he wishes he was more "manly"

I didn't say that. He just has a crush on fighters, his lover is kickboxer Badr Hari. He looked like a fan girl next to Conor
 
Athletes will conform to the outlines of the sport.

I believe that fighting is the best all around measure of a man. It works all physical systems plus all mental aspects of a man.

It is the greatest sport.

They are paid like paupers and that cuts down the % of available top athletes who are willing to dedicate to this craft to a finite fraction of what it would be if they paid properly.

If you want wrestling combined with running, and teamwork, solid pay and global respect - look to rugby. Those guys are the shit. Not here in NA, but every other European-decended country.
 
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F1 drivers and fighters both deserve more respect than anyone because those are dangerous sports that get the best qualities out of people. Fuck sports where no one ever dies

Cheerleading is more dangerous than both sports you have a hard on for. I guess they are way more manly than fighters and F1 drivers...
 

Another A-level athlete who wished he would be a fighter.

Sweden’s top football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic revealed that he is a “huge UFC fan” and would have contemplated a career in Mixed Martial Arts.
 
I agree. The amount of training and know-how they have to endure to even compete, much less be an elite fighter is ridiculous. It's MMA/Boxing that everyone wishes they could do. Playing with a ball does not equal fighting.
 
Cheerleading is more dangerous than both sports you have a hard on for. I guess they are way more manly than fighters and F1 drivers...

No it's not, it's a circus.
 
I didn't say that. He just has a crush on fighters, his lover is kickboxer Badr Hari. He looked like a fan girl next to Conor

That's just tabloid trash with no proof. If someone claimed something like that about GSP or any UFC fighter they would be dubbed or banned.
 
Well it's an arbitrary thing to say perhaps, but I tend to agree for the most part. I hear a lot of the time how crazy the level of talent MMA will jump once these "A list athletes" (or what have you) decide to fight instead of choosing stick and ball sports. One of the problems (among many) with this argument is that I have been hearing this for over 10 years ever since I joined Sherdog.

I find the reality to be that the best athletes for fighting are simply the athletes that CHOOSE to fight. And from my anecdotal experience training and competing, I don't find that the same athletic metrics (forty time, vertical, etc) really have much relevance when evaluating attributes practical towards MMA. I wouldn't call people disrespectful, per se, for having this thought process that other athletes would take over MMA with formal training, but rather ignorant and without evidence.

MMA is a unique sport with such different bodies to fit the archetype than other sports. I find fighters to be the best athletes on the planet simply because I find fighting to be the most pure test of competition in the world with the most possibility and potential to utilize all capabilities that the human body has to offer. We've seen many high level athletes from various sports give MMA a go. Some have had good success whereas others have failed. I've found that some sports lead to better MMA careers than others (ie soccer seems to foster good talent whereas few high level football and basketball players have had success). I would furthermore argue that it's simply a matter of opinion and perspective and that there really is no concrete answer on the matter.
 
Not sure I agree. I think fighters are the most courageous sportsmen on the planet without a doubt, but I don't agree they're the best athletes. The general poor cardio in MMA is quite bizarre. You have guys whose entire career and livelihood is being in peak physical shape for battle, and they visibly gas out after a few minutes work like a fat kid in gym class. It's weird. The very idea of seeing Roger Federer or Lionel Messi or Manny Pacquiao blowing out their ass after 7 minutes of action is fucking ludicrous.




This makes no sense. Fighting and grappling makes you extremely fatigued. Do you think Messi or Federer would be any less tired? Pacquiao is my favorite boxer of all time but all he has to do is box. He doesn't have to shoot/defend takedowns, grapple on the floor, get kicked in the legs, etc. You cannot compare any other sport to MMA. Just because they have good cardio in their sport does not mean it would transfer to MMA.

I agree with a lot of what the OP says. Fighters are the real A level athletes. We might not be as big as NFL guys but that is because we do too much cardio every day. Start training JJ Watt MMA every day and let's see if he can maintain all that muscle mass while also building cardio and developing skills. Because if you train martial arts six or seven days a week it is going to be very hard to also maintain that muscle mass and NFL combine numbers that everybody loves to talk about
 
Don't know if I agree, but TS makes a good point. Some of the NFL players that tried to transition to boxing failed miserably. Eating a punch and getting hurt, and still competing takes a special breed of person. Incredible athleticism is not enough. Dealing with getting hurt, losing, and coming back to fight again is an even rarer trait.
 
Roger Federer and Messi wouldn't last a round of boxing. It takes a completely different conditioning.

Pacman is a legend and a warrior. I don't know why we make so much distinction between boxing and MMA anyway, it's all one big fighting family. Pacman is ten times the man Messi will ever know how to be.
Did I really rustle your jimmies this bad? Any fighter wouldn't make it to semi-pro level of Tennis or Soccer.
 
Soccer, Basketball, football & baseball all have better athletes than combat sports. Nobody wants to take punches for a living when they can make millions in a less dangerous sport.
 
Did I really rustle your jimmies this bad? Any fighter wouldn't make it to semi-pro level of Tennis or Soccer.

And most tennis and soccer players would be too scared to even train seriously in MMA or boxing.
 
This makes no sense. Fighting and grappling makes you extremely fatigued. Do you think Messi or Federer would be any less tired? Pacquiao is my favorite boxer of all time but all he has to do is box. He doesn't have to shoot/defend takedowns, grapple on the floor, get kicked in the legs, etc. You cannot compare any other sport to MMA. Just because they have good cardio in their sport does not mean it would transfer to MMA.

I agree with a lot of what the OP says. Fighters are the real A level athletes. We might not be as big as NFL guys but that is because we do too much cardio every day. Start training JJ Watt MMA every day and let's see if he can maintain all that muscle mass while also building cardio and developing skills. Because if you train martial arts six or seven days a week it is going to be very hard to also maintain that muscle mass and NFL combine numbers that everybody loves to talk about
Fighters aren't the real A level athletes at all, Aldo is a failed soccer player so he walked into MMA and became a GOAT candidate. Stipe is a failed baseball player so he became UFC champion.
 
Soccer, Basketball, football & baseball all have better athletes than combat sports. Nobody wants to take punches for a living when they can make millions in a less dangerous sport.

But fighters get paid more. Floyd and Pacquiao shit on all of those bums.
 
And most tennis and soccer players would be too scared to even train seriously in MMA or boxing.
Who cares? Better to make millions and become famous globally instead of making scraps and maybe becoming famous in a niche sport.
 
But fighters get paid more. Floyd and Pacquiao shit on all of those bums.
Haha no they don't, they're both knocking on 40s door and they'll still have to come out of retirement, Pacqiuao already has. You don't have to be the absolute best in the sport to make tens of millions like you do in boxing.
 
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